When Academy Awards officials told Sacha Baron Cohen that he was only welcome on the red carpet if he behaved like a nominee for Hugo, not like Admiral General Aladeen, the fictional fascist he plays in his upcoming movie, The Dictator, how many of us actually believed Cohen would listen, especially after he filmed a video, in character, promising to punish the "Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Zionists" if he did not receive tickets to the awards ceremony? Oscars producer Brian Grazer was the only spokesperson savvy enough to realize that there's really no way to stop Cohen from messing around with dressed-up celebrities tomorrow night and that it would be better to cooperate. "We're thrilled to have him and he'll be on the red carpet dressed as The Dictator," he said. Admiral General Aladeen was pleased with the response, and posted a photo holding his tickets with the statement, "Victory Is Ours!... The Academy have surrendered and sent over two tickets and a parking pass! Today Oscar, tomorrow Obama!" Come on, who wouldn't want to lighten up a three-hour ceremony with that guy? But according to officials who spoke off the record, a lot of Academy members are upset Grazer gave Cohen the go-ahead because they feel that the red carpet is not the right place for promotional stunts. (Kind of ironic given the nature of celebrity and Hollywood in general; right, none of the stars there are interested in attracting attention to themselves or their projects!) "Do we have concerns?" said one Academy official. "Yes. Did we say, 'Please stunt the red carpet?' No. "Will he be coming as the Dictator? Only Sacha knows." [Contact Music] [The Wrap]

This awards season has been all about The Help, but for the cast it's been all about, well,…
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There are many, many things that annoy me about Adam Levine — every Maroon 5 song, the fact that Levine is now a judge on The Voice, the way the autotuned horror that is "Moves Like Jagger" just got stuck in my head simply because I TYPED the words "Adam Levine" — but at least he's not one of those celebs that pretends he wasn't cool in high school. "I loved hanging out with girls ... It was never an issue, how about that? And, of course, it's been magnified times 1,000 with this whole (fame) thing that's happened, so it's kind of crazy. I did OK. I did all right," he recently said. Wait, why am I sticking up for Adam Levine again? He's a dick. [AP]

Whitney Houston has a "secret son," Nick Gordon, who she never formally adopted but took into her Atlanta, Georgia home when he was a little boy in hopes of giving him a better life. "Nick was family, she loved him as much as any mother could love a child. Whitney wanted to save Nick - even if she couldn't save herself," a family source told The Sun. You may remember Nick, now 22, from the fight he tried to stop between his "sister" Bobbi Kristina and her ex-boyfriend last year — unfortunately, he used a gun instead of his words and was charged with possession. The two are so close that sources say even if Nick isn't written into Whitney's Will, Bobbi will "make sure Nick is taken care of because it's what her mom would have wanted and he's like a brother." [Digital Spy]

Sometimes Taylor Swift's cutesiness is cloying, but she's won me over for life with her offer to take a teenage cancer patient as her date to the Academy of Country Music Awards because she had to decline his invitation to prom. She wrote back via Facebook: "I'm so sorry but I won't be able to make it to your prom. But I was wondering, the Acm Awards are coming up. Would you be my date?" [Contact Music]

25-year-old Florence Welch of FLORENCE + The Machine says she's been meaning to move out of her mom's house for the past five years, but she's been too busy. "I'm desperate to move out. I haven't had time. I've been on tour since I was 20 so I just haven't got round to it," she said, adding that living with her mother does have some perks. "When it all gets too much I just go to ground in my bedroom. It's like a museum. It's full of clothes that I've collected, posters, paintings, postcards. It's like a living scrapbook." [UK Express]

Rihanna wants to set Katy Perry up with a new dude. Oy. Maybe Katy can give her some love-life advice in return. [Oh No They Didn't]

Any Beatles fans going to be in Stockport, England, this weekend? If so, you better check out the previously unseen Beatles photos, taken by an 11-year-old schoolboy on vacation in 1963, that are being auctioned off tomorrow. While on holiday with his parents, the kid snapped photos of the newly famous bandmates — they had just landed their first U.K. number one single with Please Please Me — suntanning and drinking tea at a seaside resort. [Contact Music]